Pangani

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Tanga Region's Districts

Pangani is the name both of a town that lies 45 km south of Tanga, and of the district of which it is the administrative center. The town lies at the mouth of the river of the same name. Being much less known, it is much more peaceful than Zanzibar and the beaches around Pangani are virtually unspoilt.

Although archaeologists have found the remains of small 15th century settlements on the bluffs just north of Pangani, the modern town came to prominence in the nineteenth century, when, under nominal Zanzibari rule, it was a major terminus of caravan routes to the deep interior. From the 1860s onward townsmen established large plantations of sugar and coconut in Mauya, along the banks of the river just west of town. The plantations were worked by slave labor, and Pangani also became an important center of the slave trade, shipping captives taken in the wars attendant on the collapse of the Shambaa kingdom in the Usambara mountains to the plantations of Pemba and Zanzibar. After the Sultan of Zanzibar signed treaties with Great Britain outlawing the ocean-going trade in slaves in 1873, Pangani became a center for smuggling slaves across the narrow channel to Pemba, in evasion of British warships.

In 1888 Pangani was the center of an armed movement to resist German colonial conquest of the entire mainland Tanzanian coast. The local leader of the resistance was Abushiri ibn Salim al-Harthi, a Swahili-speaker born in Zanzibar who owned a small estate at the suburb that now bears his name. Abushiri was instrumental in coordinating resistance to German conquest along much of the coast. The Germans hanged him at Pangani in December 1889.

Several historical sites in and around the town serve as reminders of the strong Arabic influence and the later German and British colonial era in Tanganyika. The district boma or headquarters is the most impressive building remaining from the period of Zanzibari rule.

The Mauya plantations no longer grow sugar, but produce much coconut and betel-nut. Pangani was once a secondary center of the sisal industry, servicing sisal plantations to the north and south of town. Pangani also has a fishing industry. In recent years beach resorts outside of the town have brought tourists. The town is a district headquarters. Its hospital draws patients from many parts of the region. Boza Secondary School is a short distance north of town.

Pangani is also one of the 7 districts of the Tanga Region. It is bordered to the North by the Muheza District, to the East by the Indian Ocean, to the South by the Pwani Region and to the West by the Handeni District.

According to the 2002 Tanzania National Census, the population of the Pangani District was 44,107.[1]